A disqualification case was filed against re-electionist Senator Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III on Monday, the Commissions on Elections (COMELEC) has said.

According to Comelec spokesman James Jimenez, lawyer Ferdinand Topacio claimed that Pimentel could no longer run for senator in the upcoming mid-term elections because he was already on his second consecutive term.

Constitutional terms limits ban senators from running for a third consecutive term.

Pimentel first won a Senate seat in the 2007 polls, but he was only proclaimed winner in August 2011 after the Senate Electoral Tribunal ruled in favor of his election protest against Juan Miguel Zubiri.

Pimentel was agaim elected as senator on 2013 and has only been holding the position for seven years now because of the Zubiri case.

He filed his certificate of candidacy (COC) on October 11.

'Not applicable'

Pimentel expressed confidence his re-election would not be derailed despite the disqualification case.

"The constitution, law, jurisprudence, and basic concept of fairness are all on our side. Hence we are very very confident that we will prevail," Pimentel told GMA News Online.

The senator said that his lawyers would answer the petition in due time if the Comelec would so require.

"Comelec may surprise us by dismissing the petition outright for being a nuisance petition. But in any case, we [a]r[e] ready and we kno[w] the correct answer to this issue," Pimentel said.

Pimentel's camp also underscored that the cases which Topacio cited were not applicable to his situation.

"The Aratea and Latasa cases cited by Topacio are not relevant. Facts are not similar. In Aratea the candidate really served 3 terms already and moreover was disqualified by final judgment in a criminal case. In Latasa, the candidate served 3 terms as municipal mayor but ran again as 'city mayor' when the municipality was upgraded to a city," he said.

According to Jimenez, the diqualification case filed against Pimentel will undergo due process.

Asked if the issue on Pimentel's case was raised when he filed his COC, Jimenez said: "Na-raise pero hindi naman at that moment haharangan natin. What we do is that we accept the COC and we let it go through the due process." —NB, GMA News

_________________“YESTERDAY IS HISTORY, TOMORROW A MYSTERY, AND TODAY A GIFT…THAT’S WHY IT IS CALLED THE PRESENT “.

MANILA, Philippines — Former senator Sergio Osmeña III, who is seeking a return to the Senate, expressed confidence yesterday that he will not be disqualified by the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

The poll body’s Campaign Finance Office (CFO) earlier recommended to have Osmeña perpetually barred from holding any government post, whether elective or appointive, for allegedly failing to report his statement of contributions and expenses (SOCE) in the 2010 and 2016 elections. It also proposed to slap the former senator with an administrative fine of P60,000.

“The CFO is correct when they sued for not filing (SOCE) but I filed… I filed late. But they have no adjustment in the law for late filing, they only say you should file on time or else you will be disqualified,” Osmeña told The STAR in a telephone interview.

He explained that the Comelec granted his request for a late filing of SOCE in the 2010 elections. He also filed a similar request for the 2016 polls but the poll body allegedly responded to him only a year later.

Osmeña, who has been landing in the top 12 senatorial slots in recent surveys, argued that there is a difference between not filing and filing late.

“But the law does not say that you can file late. It just says ‘if you did not file, you’re disqualified.’ That is crazy because, if you win, one (will be) disqualified because (he) didn’t file on time?” he said, pointing out that if this logic is to be followed, then Vice President Leni Robredo would have been disqualified.

The former senator noted that the Comelec, after the 2016 elections, granted the Liberal Party’s request for late filing of its candidates’ SOCEs.

He vowed to make representations before the Comelec full bench when asked to respond to the CFO recommendation.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said the commission still has to approve the recommendation “before any action can be taken on it.”

Aside from Osmeña, the CFO also recommended the perpetual disqualification of 459 other aspirants from holding public office for the same reason. The list it submitted to Comelec covered the elections in 2007, 2010, 2013 and 2016.

Of that number, 254 are from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, 30 from Northern Mindanao, 22 from the Bicol region, 20 from Calabarzon, 18 from Western Visayas and 17 from the Cordillera Administrative Region.

Eastern Visayas and Soccsksargen both had 14 offenders; while the National Capital Region and Cagayan Valley each had 11 offenders.

The regions with the smallest number of offenders are Central Luzon and Zamboanga peninsula with 10 each, Mimaropa with eight, Ilocos region with seven, Davao five, Central Visayas with four and Caraga three.

Under Republic Act 7166, all individuals that filed COCs are required to submit their SOCEs. Failure to do so twice could lead to perpetual disqualification from an elective or appointive public office.

_________________“YESTERDAY IS HISTORY, TOMORROW A MYSTERY, AND TODAY A GIFT…THAT’S WHY IT IS CALLED THE PRESENT “.

Sheila Crisostomo (The Philippine Star) - October 27, 2018 - 12:00am MANILA, Philippines — Ninety-five individuals, including Rizalito David who attempted to run for president in 2016, are now subjects of the Commission on Elections (Comelec)’s motu proprio proceedings to determine whether they are nuisance bets and their certificates of candidacy (COC) should be cancelled.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez bared this development on Thursday.

David ran but failed in his senatorial bids in 2010 and 2013 under the Ang Kapatiran Party. In the 2016 polls, he attempted to run for president but he was declared a nuisance candidate by the Comelec.

In the 2016 elections, David was also known for seeking the disqualification of Sen. Grace Poe from the presidential derby over her citizenship and of President Duterte, claiming that the latter’s substitution of Martin Diño as presidential candidate was null and void.

The other senatorial aspirant deemed unfit by the Comelec’s Law Department is 45-year-old Geremy Geroy who tore his COC right after filing it last Oct. 17.

Geroy, who claimed to be a “secret friend of China,” insisted that he does not have to be a senator to help the country.

Earlier, Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon said the Law Department is screening the list of senatorial hopefuls motu proprio or even without any complaint.

Guanzon, however, gave assurance that they do not look at money as basis in determining the qualification of candidates.

Under the Omnibus Election Code, the grounds to declare nuisance candidates are: if they will put the election process in mockery; cause confusion among the voters due to similarity in the name of a registered candidate and do not have bona fide intention to run.

The official added they hope to come up with the official list of candidates ahead of schedule so they could print the official ballots early.

Based on Comelec Resolution No. 10429, the Comelec shall start posting the tentative list of candidates on its website on Nov. 5 to allow candidates to check their names that will appear on the ballots.

_________________“YESTERDAY IS HISTORY, TOMORROW A MYSTERY, AND TODAY A GIFT…THAT’S WHY IT IS CALLED THE PRESENT “.

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